DISEASES OF GAME 329 



were being continually snapped up by the bird. We 

 have, however, up to now completely failed to find 

 any cestoid larvae in the grouse-fly or in the numerous 

 " biting lice " which abound on the skin and amongst 

 the feathers of the grouse ; and what is still more 

 significant and still more remarkable, we have, in the 

 hundreds of crop contents which we have examined, 

 never found one of these insects in the grouse's food. 



Dr. Shipley also describes the different parasites, 

 commencing with the grouse-lice, which does so much 

 harm to the grouse in the bad years when they are 

 feeble and unhealthy ; this lice is the commonest of the 

 insects which infest the skin of the grouse, and appears 

 to some extent in inverse measure to their health. 

 Careful search will discover but two or three on a 

 healthy grouse, but on a "piner" hundreds may be 

 met with. No doubt we will yet discover the host of 

 the tapeworm or the cause of the grouse disease. I 

 made the following observation two years ago, on a 

 moor, where attention had been given to burning, 

 draining, vermin-killing, etc. etc., with the hopes of 

 bringing the bag up to a given limit : a larger stock of 

 grouse was left in 1907, and one hundred and fifty brace 

 that might have been shot were spared in the hopes of 

 a record year in 1 908. One fact, however, was omitted 

 in the calculations. The season had been a very bad 

 heather year, so that there was no feeding during the 

 winter for a large stock of grouse, and in consequence the 

 grouse got into poor condition, pined, and suffered much 



